Canada Lawyer News

Defence lawyer to oppose forfeiture of client's bail

Calgary criminal defence lawyer Gavin Wolch is adamant that the Court has no right to hand over the bail money of his convicted client, Nicholas Rasberry, to the Crown.

Rasberry was convicted of manslaughter for stabbing to death Craig Kelloway in May of 2013. The two were drinking before the incident.

Rasberry was originally charged with murder but it was downgraded to manslaughter because the judge found that Rasberry was prompted into killing Kelloway, whom he said tried to sexually assault him.

However, before Rasberry could be sentenced, he had breached one of the conditions of his bail, that is consuming alcohol. He was caught during a Checkstop.

Hersh Wolch, a defence lawyer practicing in Winnipeg, said the forfeiture proceedings should not be allowed because Rasberry was not on bail anymore when the Crown filed the application as he had been sentenced already.

Gavin Wolch wants to get the matter done and over with because he says his client is seeking another bail as he will be appealing the verdict.

Woman gets conditional sentence for faking own abduction

Posted Jun 17, 2015 on www.edmontonsun.com

Caitlin Rose Pare will be spending four months under house arrest as part of her one year conditional sentence after she submitted a guilty plea to public mischief.

The 25-year-old Pare was charged after she admitted to faking her own abduction to collect money from her family and boyfriend to pay off a drug debt.

Pare, who has a three-year-old daughter, got hooked on drugs after she became addicted to painkillers which were prescribed for her back injury.

After serving her conditional sentence, Pare will be made to undergo probation for a year and a half.

Cocaine turns out to be a dud

Posted Apr 03, 2015 on www.therecord.com

A drug charge against Shane Achilles was withdrawn after a powder seized from him and thought to be cocaine turned out to be Metamucil, a laxative.

With that, Achilles is set to get back about $2,000 that police seized from him believing the money was earned in a drug deal.

However, Achilles was not off the hook as he admitted to evading police who chased him. He also violated traffic rules in the process.

He submitted a guilty plea to driving while disqualified and failing to stop for police.

He received a 105 day-jail sentence and a three-year driving ban.

Kitchener criminal lawyer Hal Mattson, who defended for Achilles, said his client had an unsavory upbringing having been brought up by a single mother, who moved around Ontario a lot. Afterwards, he mostly grew up on the streets.

He had gone clean about five years ago but went back to using drugs last year.

Judge to decide in April whether or not to admit statement made to undercover cop

Posted Mar 13, 2015 on www.timescolonist.com

Bradley Streiling will have to wait until April when the judge decides whether or not to admit as evidence against him a statement that he made to an undercover police.

Allen said the statement is not reliable and is detrimental to Streiling.

Streiling is charged with the death of his toddler stepson, Noah Cownden.

Cownden, who would have turned two years old if he had not died three days before his birthday, had suffered an injury to his head. His death in 2008 was at first thought of as an accident.

Five years after, Streiling was charged following his admission to an undercover agent that he had caused Cownden's death by banging the little boy's head on the floor.

The Crown prosecutor has been urging the judge to admit Streiling's statement because it was consistent with the other proof submitted for the case.

The judge, however, said she will hand in a decision next month yet.

High Court decides popular pizza chain can't end franchise

Posted Mar 11, 2015 on www.cbc.ca

The Supreme Court of British Columbia ruled that Domino's Canada cannot end the franchise of a pizza store in North Vancouver based on an unproven accusation.

Domino's Canada had informed the francise operated by Farhad "Alex" Iranmanesh and Keyvan Iranmanesh that it is terminating its contract after conducting its own probe on allegations that the brothers have exploited two of their employees.

Dakota Gervais-Brulhart and Blake Dearman have filed a complaint that they weren't paid and when they did not go to work to protest the wrongdoing, they were assaulted and even received death threats.

The Iranmanesh brothers, however, claimed the allegations are still unproven and they asked for an injunction order to stop Domino's Canada from ending their franchise.

Other employees of the Iranmanesh brothers also denied the claims of the complainant employees.

The judge approved the order saying that Domino's Canada cannot end its contract with the Iranmanesh brothers based on allegations that have not been proven whether true or not.

The disgruntled employees vowed to stick to their claims while Domino's Canada also said it will fight the injunction.